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How to secure erase your SSD's on a Mac

Just tried this and it failed on all counts.

USB enclosure... didn't work
eSATA enclosure using MBP.. didn't work
Internal Mac Pro SATA... didn't work.

Last two didn't work because I couldn't find the correct /dev/ address.

Given up, booted into windows and used Intels SSD Toolbox instead!
 
Concorde Rules said:
Just tried this and it failed on all counts.

USB enclosure... didn't work
eSATA enclosure using MBP.. didn't work
Internal Mac Pro SATA... didn't work.

Last two didn't work because I couldn't find the correct /dev/ address.

Given up, booted into windows and used Intels SSD Toolbox instead!
Click to expand...

What happened on the USB enclosure attempt? Intel SSD? Did you remove all other drives from your system except the USB enclosure?
 
VirtualRain said:
What happened on the USB enclosure attempt? Intel SSD? Did you remove all other drives from your system except the USB enclosure?
Click to expand...

I got the error invalid exchange and yes I did.

DoFoT9 said:
doesnt Disk Utility tell you the /dev address?
Click to expand...

I thought it did, but apparently not.

Either way it's FAR easier doing this for me:

1. Using CCC copy the SSD to another HD (120gb 5400RPM for me).
2. Boot from this 120Gb disk and erase to FAT32 the SSD.
3. Boot into Windows (On a separate HD for me) and format the SSD NTFS.
4. Run Intels SSD Toolbox.
5. Boot from the 120Gb disk and CCC back the System
6. Performance is back!

I have screenshots of the Xbench scores which I will upload once step 5 is done :)

Time taken (excluding the copying the SSD part): 5 mins and to be honest it's ALOT less faffing about!!
 
Concorde Rules said:
I thought it did, but apparently not.
Click to expand...
does the method below in the picture not work?

Either way it's FAR easier doing this for me:

*process*

Time taken (excluding the copying the SSD part): 5 mins and to be honest it's ALOT less faffing about!!
Click to expand...

if its 5 mins then thats not too bad. imagine doing that with mechanical HDDs! :eek: *dies*
 

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DoFoT9 said:
does the method below in the picture not work?

if its 5 mins then thats not too bad. imagine doing that with mechanical HDDs! :eek: *dies*
Click to expand...

Didn't know you could do that to be honest! But I don't know if it would as it asks for /dev/sda/ etc:confused:

Much easier in Windows tho!

ssdperformance.jpg
 
Concorde Rules said:
Didn't know you could do that to be honest! But I don't know if it would as it asks for /dev/sda/ etc:confused:
Click to expand...
im trying to remember if i got away with typing /dev/sda/disk7s1 (etc). or maybe it was /dev/disk7s1. i cant remember :(

Much easier in Windows tho!
Click to expand...
yeh, at least its done.

ssdperformance.jpg
Click to expand...
that is a very big performance increase! ~30%! safari snappier™? :D
 
DoFoT9 said:
im trying to remember if i got away with typing /dev/sda/disk7s1 (etc). or maybe it was /dev/disk7s1. i cant remember :(


yeh, at least its done.


that is a very big performance increase! ~30%! safari snappier™? :D
Click to expand...

Essentially the Intel G2 80Gb is aiming for a score of 300, give or take.

Looking at importing a 120Gb OWC SSD, but I'd have to pay import tax and it doesn't make it worth it then :/
 
DoFoT9 said:
300? seriously? damn they have gotten good. once OSX supports TRIM (10.8?) i might consider buying one ;)
Click to expand...

I think the OWC does edging on 400 thanks to the better writes.

If you can afford one I'd buy one to be honest.

I'm thinking of buying a 160Gb G2 and putting the 80Gb into my MacBook Pro.
 
Concorde Rules said:
I think the OWC does edging on 400 thanks to the better writes.

If you can afford one I'd buy one to be honest.

I'm thinking of buying a 160Gb G2 and putting the 80Gb into my MacBook Pro.
Click to expand...
it might be worthwhile getting one for my laptop - id be after 512GB minimum though, storage is a must for me :p

prices are currently outrageous :(
 
Concorde Rules said:
Either way it's FAR easier doing this for me:

1. Using CCC copy the SSD to another HD (120gb 5400RPM for me).
2. Boot from this 120Gb disk and erase to FAT32 the SSD.
3. Boot into Windows (On a separate HD for me) and format the SSD NTFS.
4. Run Intels SSD Toolbox.
5. Boot from the 120Gb disk and CCC back the System
6. Performance is back!

I have screenshots of the Xbench scores which I will upload once step 5 is done :)

Time taken (excluding the copying the SSD part): 5 mins and to be honest it's ALOT less faffing about!!
Click to expand...

That's good, that's at least a 3rd known way to do this... and easy if you have a Windows bootable volume.
 
Thanks a ton for this write up, VirtualRain. My Corsair P256 is once again just as fast as when I first received it! :D

hln98's suggestion to reinstall the SSD internally once GParted Live completely boots worked perfectly on my unibody Macbook Pro. I downloaded and burned gparted-live-0.6.2-2.iso to CD and boot to the gui with no display resolution issues.
 
Concord Rules:

How is it possible to run the Intel SSD toolbox on non-Intel SSDs? I only get the 'View Drive Information' and 'View SMART Attributes' options. The other 3 are greyed out and available for 'Intel SSDs only'.

What am I missing? Please help!

Thanks.
 
mac.rumors said:
Concord Rules:

How is it possible to run the Intel SSD toolbox on non-Intel SSDs? I only get the 'View Drive Information' and 'View SMART Attributes' options. The other 3 are greyed out and available for 'Intel SSDs only'.

What am I missing? Please help!

Thanks.
Click to expand...

You can't apart from on the Kingston branded SSDs IIRC.

I was using a 80Gb Intel G2...

I think there is Windows software that will do non Intel SSDs but I don't know what that is.
 
My copy of Windows is a virtual machine (Parallels/Fusion). Do you think I can still run Intel SSD Toolbox within the Windows virtual machine on my X25 G2 SSD?

Concorde Rules said:
Either way it's FAR easier doing this for me:

1. Using CCC copy the SSD to another HD (120gb 5400RPM for me).
2. Boot from this 120Gb disk and erase to FAT32 the SSD.
3. Boot into Windows (On a separate HD for me) and format the SSD NTFS.
4. Run Intels SSD Toolbox.
5. Boot from the 120Gb disk and CCC back the System
6. Performance is back!

I have screenshots of the Xbench scores which I will upload once step 5 is done :)

Time taken (excluding the copying the SSD part): 5 mins and to be honest it's ALOT less faffing about!!
Click to expand...
 
I've looked around, but can't seem to find how 'necessary' this procedure is for Sandforce-controller drives like the Vertex II. Do these still need the occasional scrubbing?
 
Cocoia said:
I've looked around, but can't seem to find how 'necessary' this procedure is for Sandforce-controller drives like the Vertex II. Do these still need the occasional scrubbing?
Click to expand...

Well the process takes 2 min, I have vertex 2 in my macpro and successfully did it using the method described by OP, except to get the disk to be in a not frozen state, you need to take it out when the machine is booting, and insert it right after you select to boot from CD (you need to insert it during boot of the cd so the linux picks it up, inserting it when gparted has already booted wont work).
 
skiffx said:
Well the process takes 2 min, I have vertex 2 in my macpro and successfully did it using the method described by OP, except to get the disk to be in a not frozen state, you need to take it out when the machine is booting, and insert it right after you select to boot from CD (you need to insert it during boot of the cd so the linux picks it up, inserting it when gparted has already booted wont work).
Click to expand...

Thanks, I added your post as an alternate method to avoid a "Frozen" drive in the OP.
 
Cocoia said:
I've looked around, but can't seem to find how 'necessary' this procedure is for Sandforce-controller drives like the Vertex II. Do these still need the occasional scrubbing?
Click to expand...

I have a Sandforce-based OWC Mercury Extreme in (extreme) testing. After ~3200 complete disk fills the SSD writes just as fast as when it was new. Taking into account Sandforce's claimed 0.5 write amplification we are looking at ~1600 program/erase cycles for each flash cell, out of a total of 5000 to 10000 before they wear out.

So, no, you don't need to scrub Sandforce-based drives.
 
cwebersd said:
I have a Sandforce-based OWC Mercury Extreme in (extreme) testing. After ~3200 complete disk fills the SSD writes just as fast as when it was new. Taking into account Sandforce's claimed 0.5 write amplification we are looking at ~1600 program/erase cycles for each flash cell, out of a total of 5000 to 10000 before they wear out.

So, no, you don't need to scrub Sandforce-based drives.
Click to expand...

While the problem might be overstated, it's good to have this tool at your disposal and if you're reformatting your drives and reinstalling your OS, it doesn't hurt to add this Secure Erase to the process.

As for your testing, of course, I don't know what exactly you are doing and how, but 1 or 3200 complete disk fills doesn't matter on most benchmarks. If you want to recreate the performance degradation, I understand you need to have a full disk (just one complete disk write is enough) and have a large queue depth of random writes, using a tool like I/O meter. More details here on how Anand tests the SF based drives... http://www.anandtech.com/show/3681/oczs-vertex-2-special-sauce-sf1200-reviewed/4

And don't confuse performance degradation of full drives, which this process addresess, with the issue of cell failure over time, or drive longevity, which is not addressed by the Secure Erase proceedure.
 
Hello,

I'm getting wildly varying results from XBench when I test my SSD. (I've been using an Intel G2 80GB SSD as my boot volume for 8 months now. It hasn't been reformated or erased since.)

While booted from another drive, I tested the SSD and got results that were all over the place. For about 15 tests, I got just about anything from 210 to 295.

Is that normal?

Thanks

Loa
 
Loa said:
Is that normal?
Click to expand...

The program was last updated in 2006, a time where SSDs weren't available for the masses. It simply isn't made for benching SSDs.

My 160GB G2 scores from 170 to 300, certainly not a benchmark that can be trusted.
 
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